The Hidden Children by Robert William Chambers Chapter 7 Page 32

We did not seek you, but, having you so, bowed to God’s will and suffered you to remain with us. We strove to do our duty by you — — ‘ His vague gaze wandered toward the tent door where the armed guard stood, terrible and grim and ragged. Then he unloosened my suddenly limp arms about him, muttering to himself of something he’d forgotten; and, rummaging in his pockets found it presently — a packet laced in deerskin. ‘This,’ he said, ‘is all we ever knew of you. It should be yours. Good-bye.’

“I strove to speak, but he no longer heard me, and asked the guard impatiently why the Chaplain tarried. And so I crept forth into the dark of dawn, more dead than living. And presently the rising sun blinded my tear-drowned eyes, where I was kneeling in a field under